Why drivers get irritated

The undertone of Caille Millner's piece on bikes ("Room for everyone in the bicycle lane," Nov. 10) is that bikers are morally superior to car drivers ("the big SUV you bought," "you're jealous because you're not fit enough or brave enough," "cars don't add any social value").

Drivers' irritation at bikers springs from a fundamental awareness that the onus of responsibility is one-sided: Drivers are daily protecting the lives and safety of bikers, at the peril of grave legal consequences. Drivers must pass rigorous tests and carry mandatory insurance and follow the Vehicle Code. They must make split-second decisions all the time, so they become acutely sensitive to the aberrant actions of others. It's no wonder that the often cavalier, arrogant and dangerous behavior of many bikers - erratic darting in and out of bike lanes, "rolling stops," not riding single file on dangerous roads - makes drivers nervous and angry, because drivers must look out for bikers' safety.

I'm not against bikes; they are a healthy, nonpolluting means of transport. Yet "sharing the road" means sharing the responsibility for mutual safety, and that means following all the rules, not just some of them.

Thomas Wood, Nicasio

It's only a matter of time

Caille Millner manages to get it completely wrong. People are not affronted by sharing the road with bicyclists, they are affronted by the bikers' disregard for others.

The writer of "Don't hit me" (Letters, Nov. 10), about bicyclists the same day as Millner's column, gets it right: "It's only a matter of time before someone else is injured or killed."

Pat McCulloch, San Francisco

Congrats to your columnist

I found myself looking forward to reading Caille Millner's column as I finished up my Saturday read of The Chron.

I don't always agree with her conclusions, but I agree with many of them and admire her willingness to write her mind regardless of potential hate mail. Also, she puts everything so well: good writing.

Go, Caille! Go, Chron, for hiring and featuring her in this difficult age of the paper newspaper. Maybe we'll see more of her in the near future.

Pelosi's job: fix entitlements

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stated clearly that the three important issues in the campaign were "Medicare, Medicare, Medicare." Translation: scare people, scare people, scare people. Every thinking American, be they Democrat or Republican, knows that entitlements, especially Medicare and Social Security, need to be fixed in order to save them for future generations. If she were a serious public servant, her three important issues would be "fix them, fix them, fix them."

Apparently the personal desire to reclaim her job as speaker is more important. It's time for her to move on. We have problems; we need problem-solvers.

Boehner's job: forge compromises

Speaker John Boehner ("Work with Dems, House speaker tells Republicans," Nov. 11) is in a position to go down in history as one of the greatest speakers - if he can get the House members to go along with compromises that he and the president can work out.

So far he has been unable to control the Tea Party people. What a shame for him and us if the Tea Party continues its obstructions and if he cannot provide the compromises needed.